11 ms·
Long-Term Coffee Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease (2013)
- eloff 9y agoI find this result surprising. Caffeine restricts blood vessels, so you'd expect blood pressure to go up the more you consume, and likewise you'd expect long-term elevated blood-pressure to increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. Likewise in a correlational study, you'd expect people who drink more coffee to have more hectic lives and get less sleep, which surely shouldn't reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. I'm at a loss for a possible mechanism behind this result. Protective effect of antioxidants in coffee? Hard to believe. Nonetheless it seems a great excuse to reach for that second cup when I start flagging in the early afternoon.
- chmod775 9y agoOnly 13% of CVD deaths are caused by elevated blood pressure, and that is elevated blood pressure as a long-term condition, not the temporarily elevated blood pressure coffee may cause.
- capisce 9y agoJust a speculation, maybe the temporary slightly elevated blood pressure from coffee is actually beneficial due to hormesis, just like stressing the body with strength or interval training is healthy in the long run as the body adapts and grows stronger.
- aportnoy 9y agoIt very well may be that income is a confounding variable. Being able to afford 3-5 cups/day means you’re more likely to have a relatively high income, and thus a better health situation.
- hn_throwaway_99 9y ago> Being able to afford 3-5 cups/day means you’re more likely to have a relatively high income. This is false: http://news.gallup.com/poll/184388/americans-coffee-consumption-steady-few-cut-back.aspx http://news.gallup.com/poll/184388/americans-coffee-consumpt... ”Fewer lower-income than higher-income Americans drink coffee, but lower-income coffee drinkers consume more cups per day than higher-income coffee drinkers (3.8 vs. 2.4 cups, on average)."
- loeg 9y agoDoes that include the entire lower-income population, or just those who drink coffee? I'm not sure I follow how those statistics disprove the parent comment suggestion that higher income people might be more likely to drink coffee.
- xorfish 9y agoWouldn't that match this study? Low income Americans driink either a lot or not any coffee at all. High income Americans drink some coffee. So you would expect no coffee consumption and high coffee consumption to correlate with a higher risk than moderate consumption. This is exactly what the study found.
- iamthirsty 9y agoDo you have any source on that? I drink 3-5 cups a day and make basically nothing, and have an unrelated autoimmune disease.
- Deimorz 9y agoI'm not sure if you're only thinking about buying pre-made coffee from convenience stores, Starbucks, etc. but coffee is very cheap to make yourself. It should only be cents a day unless you're using pretty high-end stuff. Also, when it says 3-5 cups a day, that's the measurement unit "cup", not what most people would think of as "a cup of coffee". A typical size cup/mug of coffee is usually about 3-4 cups.
- jey 9y agoA cup is 8 fl oz, so a typical mug is 1.5 to 2 cups.
- noncoml 9y agoA cup in the study is defined as 8oz of brewed coffee I believe. If you are an espresso drinker, it’s worth mentioning that a cup of brewed coffee contains almost 50% more caffeine than a single shot espresso. So we are talking about roughly 2-4 double shot espresso coffees per day.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- nether 9y ago5 cups/day isn't exactly breaking the bank, as long you're not drinking hipster sour watery stuff at $4.50/cup. I just drank instant coffee throughout college. At my high school, you could drop $10 into a jar for the "coffee club" and have unlimited coffee throughout the year (drip brew, pretty weak stuff).
- WalterBright 9y ago> Being able to afford 3-5 cups/day means you’re more likely to have a relatively high income You can buy a coffee maker for $12 on Amazon. Ground coffee is $7 for 12 oz or so, and you can make a pot of coffee (12 cups) a day for a couple weeks from that. It's pretty durn cheap. It's probably the cheapest beverage other than tap water.
- gruturo 9y agoFirst time I was out of Italy I literally could not believe the price of coffee. And people could not believe me, when I told them how much cheaper it was in Italy. We’re talking 40 cents vs $2 (recent example I remember both prices for the same year, circa 2011). So yeah - depends on the country, or whether you make it yourself, coffee can be extremely cheap. No correlation between consumption and wealth (esp. in countries like Italy where literallly everyone drinks it)
- eecc 9y agoIn Italy bar personnel tends to be paid next to nothing for grueling shifts... it’s really incredible. But yeah, outside of tourist trap areas, your average caffè (that’d be the espresso) is usually around 80c
- lancebeet 9y agoIn Italy, the cost of the coffee as a service is much lower than in the rest of Europe and the USA. Espressos are made much faster and more frequently, the volume is lower which means they can be drunk quicker, and Italians generally spend less time in the cafe. Not to mention that in most of Europe, Italian coffee is served, which is more expensive there than in Italy. Even so, the cost of the actual coffee is only around 10 cents for quality beans.
- lostlogin 9y agoYou probably noticed that you pay more if you sit down. Drink at the bar and it’s usually cheaper.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- hackerfromthefu 9y agoCould it be caused from lifestyle factors that change with coffee. the first examples that come to mind: Coffee decreases appetite, which could reduce overeating, which could be linked to the noted reduction in type 2 diabetes which can be caused by eating too much sugar. Similarly could it be that coffee increases activity which if used for exercise both reduces weight as well as improves the body's ability to manage blood pressure?
- hackerfromthefu 9y agoWhen you're flagging in the afternoon, possibly the best results from a health perspective could be to rest for a bit to let your body naturally regulate, or to do some brief but intense exercise to activate adrenals naturally, or eat a lighter or low carb lunch so there's less of a blood sugar drop-off. Love to see a double blind with these alternatives measured against the extra coffees.
- wbeckler 9y agoThe problem is, you can't do a blind study with diet and exercise, because the subjects will know what they are doing. You could potentially do a caffeine pill study rather than a coffee study, but even that is hard to keep people from detecting. On top of this, we're looking at long term studies that would be really hard to control. Finally, the correlations noticed by these authors need to be taken with a huge grain of salt because there are so many potential confounding factors, such as income.
- eecc 9y agoPlus, who knows if it’s the caffeine in the coffee or some other molecule floating in the brew. In doubt, I’ll keep my moka close and well in use ;)
- at-fates-hands 9y ago>> or to do some brief but intense exercise to activate adrenals naturally I used this approach in college since I was not a coffee drinker. If I needed to study all night, or even for a few hours after a long day, I would work out either with some interval cardio or some light weight lifting. It would easily wake me up and keep me going for at least 2-3 hours and I was able to focus rather easily and there was no crash from caffeine or energy drinks that are so popular now.
- vixen99 9y agoCoffee is a lot more than just its caffeine. https://www.ift.org/~/media/Knowledge%20Center/Publications/Books/Samples/IFTPressBook_Coffee_PreviewChapter.pdf https://www.ift.org/~/media/Knowledge%20Center/Publications/....
- nirv 9y ago"Conclusions: [...] Moderate coffee consumption was inversely significantly associated with CVD risk, with the lowest CVD risk at 3 to 5 cups/d, and heavy coffee consumption was not associated with elevated CVD risk." I am confused here (with the word "inversely"). Do I understand correctly that: a) moderate consumption of coffee leads to a reduction in the risk of CVD compared to when a person does not drink coffee at all, and b) strong consumption does not affect CVD risk comparing to the moderate coffee consumption?
- hannob 9y agoYes. This is also not very surprising. There's been plenty of research indicating that coffee consumption has moderate health benefits. This should all be taken with a grain of salt. Researching nutrition and particularly its long term effects is extremely difficult and prone to all kinds of biases, as you usually can't practically do controlled studies. But as far as the research we have tells us drinking coffee is not so bad.
- lozf 9y agoYes, and on the subject of salt; a tiny pinch in a cup of coffee really does help to bring out the flavour. I've no idea about the effects on health, (probably depends on the rest of ones sodium intake) but it tastes good.
- kazinator 9y ago+1 I put a pinch of salt in my coffee. It modifies the flavor in a subtle way that is hard to describe.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- vmware513 9y agoI am actively running this experiment. I will comment back 50 years later to share my experience. ;)
- bradknowles 9y agoAll good comments here, but I did want to point out that this study was originally published in 2013, according to that page. The subject line should be updated to reflect that.
- dang 9y agoChanged. Thanks!
- yters 9y agoCoffee cartel at it again.
- js2 9y agoNo mention of CYP1A2 genotype which affects caffeine metabolism rate. From a different study (2006): Intake of coffee was associated with an increased risk of nonfatal MI only among individuals with slow caffeine metabolism, suggesting that caffeine plays a role in this association. ... The purpose of this study was to determine whether CYP1A2 genotype modifies the association between intake of caffeinated coffee and risk of nonfatal MI. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/202502 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/202502 A more recent (2015) report has this conclusion w/r/t CVD: Consistent observational evidence indicates that moderate coffee consumption is associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in healthy adults. In addition, consistent observational evidence indicates that regular consumption of coffee is associated with reduced risk of cancer of the liver and endometrium, and slightly inverse or null associations are observed for other cancer sites. https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/14-appendix-e2/e2-39a.asp https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/... This NYT article summarizes and links to a bunch of studies: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/for-coffee-drinkers-the-buzz-may-be-in-your-genes/ https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/for-coffee-drinker... BTW, if you've used 23andme, it should have your CYP1A2 genotype.
- steadicat 9y agoI have 23andme, but their results are not very clear. All they say is “You have two variants associated with consuming more caffeine.” I’m unsure how to square that with the studies above. Do I have fast or slow metabolism? Do I have higher or lower risk of MI?
- js2 9y agoLooks like they revised how they present the data. Try looking in the archived reports in the drug response section. It should categorize you as a fast or slow metabolizer. You can probably figure this out also from the raw data but I can’t give you any guidance there. https://you.23andme.com/reports/report_archive/download/report_archive_summary/ https://you.23andme.com/reports/report_archive/download/repo...
- kyberias 9y ago
- ChuckMcM 9y agoAnd of course the study that its good for you : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016508514012001 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016508514... I see it is already on the Cure or Kill app http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c http://kill-or-cure.herokuapp.com/a-z/c
- trendoid 9y agoOP's post is presenting correlation of moderate consumption with lower Cardiovascular disease and no correlation with higher consumption. Did you read the paper?
- ChuckMcM 9y agoHmm, I did read it but I missed the 'inverse' association. This is the second time in the last 10 days where I've read a paper that presented its conclusion by asserting a negative. Thanks for the cross check.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jamesdftx 9y agoI'm surprised I don't see Guayusa mentioned on HN at all.
- clydethefrog 9y agoI am interested! Quick research shows it's related to Mate, does it shares it's effects? I am interested in buying it, but lots of (local) stores that sell it don't have it in their inventory any more. To me it raises concerns over food security for the local populations of Ecuador and Peru. Quinoa comes to mind.
- jamesdftx 9y agoSee Runa [0] :) [0] http://runa.org/ http://runa.org/
- haffi112 9y agoWhat about water consumption? Maybe these coffee drinkers are likely to be better hydrated than non-coffee drinkers and the effect is not due to coffee at all?
- ricardobeat 9y agoCoffee is known to be diuretic, that’s unlikely to be the case.
- Tharkun 9y agoTake that with a grain of salt. Coffee is a diuretic, but unless you're drinking very strong syrupy stuff, it should contain more water than it makes you pee.
- goptimize 9y agoReceived August 27, 2013. Revision received October 23, 2013. Accepted October 24, 2013. Sounds like a trashjournal which would explain pretty much everything. Correction: not a trash journal, still the review process was super fast
- thijser 9y agoCirculation is not a trash journal, but one of the most important publications in Cardiology. It's surpassed in impact factor only by JACC: http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=2705 http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=2705
- goptimize 9y agoA review process shorter than 2 months is an extremely rare thing in scientific journal from CS fields to Nature journals. Most often it happens with shitty journals and / or when the editor has a horse in the race.
- thijser 9y agoThis seems like a very generalizing claim, do you have evidence for it? The AlphaGo paper in Nature ( https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16961 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16961 ) also has less than two months between submission and acceptance.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- glup 9y agoI don't know of systematic research on this but it's consistent with what I've seen in the fields I've worked in (linguistics, psychology, geochemistry). The AlphaGo paper was special because it's a super-hot high-profile topic and the journals don't want to get scooped (remember Nature is in competition with Science, PNAS, etc. for eyeballs). However exciting a conclusion may be for psycholinguistics, it won't get fast-tracked in the same way.
- known 9y agoIf you're in doubt just take an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enalapril https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enalapril pill once a day
- dominotw 9y agoAlways a good idea to get your medical advice from internet comments.
- mrfusion 9y agoWhat about decaf?
- brandon272 9y agoI drink almost exclusively decaf these days and wonder if any potential health benefits shown in these studies are still being imparted. From what I have been able to tell, the answer is “probably”.
- mrfusion 9y agoI mix in a little caff coffee in case I miss the benefits
- awalias 9y ago"Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr. van Dam received a research grant from the Nestec Company. No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported." Guys, Nestec own the world's biggest coffee machine company, Nespresso.
- dforrestwilson 9y agoAnd people wonder why so many Americans are skeptical of news and/or science.
- neves 9y agoA sincere doubt: is there any kind of guarantee that if the result were the opposite, would they still publish the article?
- lostlogin 9y agoYou surely can’t get a meaningful amount of caffination out of those tiny pods - even with the Nestles standard manoeuvre of loading them with robusta. Those steam toys are awful.
- notrlyimportant 9y agoI drink tea now, but I used to drink coffee. I'm a T1D (Type 1 Diabetic), so I get blood-work done quite regularly, BP measurements, etc. I was surprised to see my BP drop significantly with my switch to mostly black tea (118/78 -> 100/60). I also notice less fluctuations in fasting blood sugars; my A1C is always between 4.8 and 5.2 FWIW. I feel more hydrated, I'm significantly less tired and I'm calmer. I have a cup of coffee every now and then, and I'm amazed at its impact, it's a very intense drink. I believe tea is the healthier beverage, but that's just me. I drink a lot of tea to compensate for the caffeine loss (4-6) cups (8oz) a day.